No biting the personnel

I was in Montreal this past weekend for a friend’s wedding. Enough happened that I’ve decided to write about it. Plus I’ve learned that AM reads it to keep in touch.
 
The wedding itself was a blast. The ceremony was one of the most original I’ve had the chance to attend. I especially enjoyed the 4 consecutive readings: each in a different language. French speakers spoke a lot about the French poem afterwards but, in truth, every text was great. Even if you didn’t speak the language, you could feel the emotion in the speakers’ voice. It was very moving.
 
What struck me the most was how international the attendees were. The bride is from Montreal and met her husband in Boston. His family is from Puerto-Rico. They now live in Oxford. I got to chat with people from New York, Boston, Mountain View, Vancouver (on her way to Lausanne, Switzerland), Martha’s Vineyard, Nova Scotia, Israel, Montreal and many others. The jobs were as diverse.
 
Besides the wedding, I also caught up with many - but not all - of my friends in Montreal. It’s interesting when you see people twice a year to hear and see how lives evolve. You finally meet the girlfriends and boyfriends (or you learn they’re single again). The baby I saw over the holiday is now walking.
 
I got asked a lot whether I miss Montreal and if I like Seattle. I miss Montreal: the smile on people’s face and the city’s energy and vibe. Bars and dance clubs are open until 3 AM. On Thursday evening I went dancing until 2 AM. On Friday I chatted over drinks with friends in a downtown bar until closing time then went out for poutine. Downtown was packed. I got home at 4:20 AM. There’s one or more festival every weekend: the Jazz Festival finished last week and the Just For Laughs started a few days ago.  This morning I was awake (and re-energized) at 6 AM. The sunshine makes such a difference.
 
Would I want to move back is the next question I hear a lot. I would not. Funnily (or sadly), most understand to some degree. Some are even planning their own move out of the province. It was a great place to grow up in, it’s nice to vacation too but you wouldn’t want a career there. The locations I named earlier? These people all once lived in Montreal. Yeah, brain drain is a reality. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot of youthful energy still floating around. It’s just fewer and fewer of my acquaintances. Whatever this crush is, it’s even starting to affect French-Canadians (who, in my statistics, have historically remained in the province).
 
Interestingly, my grumpy Francophone friends have different reasons than the Anglophone one’s. The complaints range from: work culture that doesn’t encourage the “go-getter” personality type, family and friend mentalities that push down the dreamer or over-achiever, a medical system that’s falling apart, a lack of professionalism in some professional circles, the increasing number of bums and migrants, etc.  Crime is becoming an interesting topic. A man died from machine gun wounds at the other end of NDG a few days ago. That’s only a few miles from my parent’s place. A machine gun! A friend just bought an Audi A3 which he showed me proudly. It is a nice car. The insurance rate isn’t too high either; not because he’s got a good driving record or because statistics show that Audi A3s don’t get into accidents as often but because it’s not a popular car for thieves in the city: the parts don’t resell well. Work ethics and employment policies are another interesting topic. For all the evil things we hear and say about performance evaluations, I know now that I wouldn’t want to go back to a world where my worth to an organization isn’t directly tied to my performance and measured mostly objectively. I don’t think I could live now with the idea of working x number of years before pension eligibility.  Montreal is a changing city.

Year after year I keep wondering: what are the great jobs in Montreal? Law firms are still big business but, besides them, where do you go if you’re young and willing to kill yourself at work to change the world and get rewarded for it? I hear even investment banking doesn’t pay that well since there are so few openings for the number of candidates compared to Toronto.
 
It’s a weird feeling that I can’t completely put into words. I doubt I’m the only one thinking about this. Enough for now. I’m back in Seattle.

“He’s not getting the real one; I can’t believe people like that really exist,” she said looking at me.

Oops, I missed the chance to help.

I’m not friendly when I travel. The bubble closes and nothing will reach in. My mind narrows on a task. Frankly, I don’t want to socialize: I don’t want to talk or play card games. I’m a very bad traveling companion. You wouldn’t even want to tag along when I’m walking around the airport.

In fact, you could be a single woman who came off of the same AC8100 flight from Seattle I was on. You could be stuck in a very boring one-way conversation with a random guy (who also came off of that flight). Said companion even approached with the truly creative line: so, where are you going today? Sadly, you could be in line with him behind me at customs for 90 minutes; I wouldn’t notice.

To whoever you were, I’m sorry. It would have been easy for me to step in: my brain was elsewhere.

A good friend of mine lives in Geneva. Last December, I added a stop-over in that town on my way home for the holidays. When I go on vacation, I’m always beat for the first few days. This was no exception. Our plans to go skiing and to stay out late all fell apart. The weather didn’t help: it was gray and damp, very much like Seattle. Yet I remember visiting the old city and the public markets, climbing up the towers of the cathedral, taking a boat across lake Leman and walking back along its shores. The first picture I posted on this blog was from that trip.

Which is why I was excited to read this trip report. My friend’s mom was in Geneva not long ago. I admit: her descriptions of the city and its region bring back a lot of memory. I went there. I saw those sites. I envy her for her trip; she had more sunlight than I had.

Maybe its time for me to take a vacation.

The Wall Street Journal has an article discussing the latest effort to change the international image of the American people. Supposedly, after 9/11, the newly appointed undersecretary of state for public diplomacy tried to do this with a short lived publicity campaign describing the integration of muslisms in the U.S. It didn’t get picked up outside the US.

This effort instead aims to inform traveling American business people of some basic cultural and behavioral differences between their homeland and the rest of the world: what shouldn’t you say or do. 

This past Saturday, while on my morning run, I had a long discussion with an acquaintance about her time visiting Paris last Fall. Somehow, many Americans I speak to are convinced that the French hate them and will mistreat them. Yet, whenever the topic comes up with someone that has traveled to France, there are few complaints. The WSJ has a 9 point sample list from the non-profit running the new campaign. It’s fascinating since most of the suggestions you could come up with yourself or, at least, you could find in any good travel book. They are exactly what I heard this weekend. For example:

No slang: “Even casual profanity is unacceptable.”

Religious restraint: In many countries, religion is “not a subject for public discussion.”

Political restraint: “Steer clear… if someone is attacking U.S. politicians or policies. Agree to disagree.”

No great secret here: when in a foreign land, use common sense.

On a different note, I liked this one:

Slow down: “We talk fast, eat fast, move fast, live fast. Many cultures do not.”

Since I moved here, I’ve learned to slow down when speaking English. English in the US is spoken at a slower rate than Spanish or French. Food for thought: I also believe that French in Montreal is spoken faster than French in many other places.

WSJ article.

We were in Vancouver this past weekend. The first place we stopped at, after Dim Sun at Sun Sui Wah, was Daiso in Richmond. This is the first North-American store of the chain and the most profitable one of all 3000 locations. So… what does Daiso sell? Everything, for less than 2$ a piece, in pastel colors, with broken english. Unlike your average 1$ shop, the quality is surprisingly high. I suspect they make their money by selling some items at a really really high margin to compensate for a loss on others.

In any case, to quote their web site:

Richmond Daiso carries over 50,000 types of products in various styles (over 700,000 individual pieces in total) including: household items, tableware, cutlery, cooking pots and pans, lighting fixtures, rugs, artificial plants, vases, garden tools, shoes, socks, scarves, car accessories, luggage and bags, glassware, porcelain, arts and crafts, bookcases, magazines, stationery, toys, oriental tea, soft drinks, snacks, candies, spices, cosmetics, massage products, electrical and electronic items, and many more.

Frankly, they had soooo many cute things in their stationary, tableware and gift wrapping sections that I had to drag her out of the store. I’ll admit though, I almost bought yarn for a friend. 2$ seemed too good to be true though. Stop on by next time you’re in Vancouver and judge for yourself. The store is a few blocks west of I-99. Make sure to wander the shopping mall too; gems are hidden in there.

P.S.: more on Daiso

In Japan alone, there are over 2,400 stores; and Daiso ranks second to Tokyo Disneyland, receiving higher brand recognition and customer satisfaction among Japanese female consumers than the world famous Sony, McDonald’s, and Toyota.

One of our New Year’s resolutions is to get out of town one weekend a month. This past weekend was our first attempt. We left Seattle ~1:30 PM on Saturday, reached the ferry terminal at Anacortes just in time to miss the 3:00 PM ferry – yeah we should have looked at the schedule – but caught the 4:20 PM one. Sadly, that one follows the long route through all the major San Juan islands; it stopped by Shaw, Lopez and Orcas before arriving at Friday Harbor at ~6:15 PM.

We stayed at a wonderful Bed & Breakfast. The Tucker House has probably been around for a few years now although new owners had just moved in that day. They also own the Harrison House Suites next door. It was a great experience. I’m always surprised, having traveled a bit in Europe, how different the B&B concept can be in North America. Their off-season rate is 140USD per weekend night. That’s more than many hotel rooms in small towns. Friday Harbor has many such B&Bs with charm, luxuriousness and great location in the village. Was it worth the price? The room was wonderful and breakfast… breaskfast… breakfast was, in order, fresh orange juice and coffee, granola with yogurt and honey, baked grapefruit with brown sugar, southern scramble wrap with beans and chocolate coffee cake with sour cream icing. They offered to serve it all to our room. We decided instead to eat in the kitchen of the Harrison Suites. We got to see a bit more of the property but forgot to take pictures. It’s gigantic and can sleep 48. If you fly in, they can pick you up at the local airport. They have spare bikes for client. They can arrange diving lessons. We’ll happily go back.

Friday Harbor however was dead. Most of the restaurants and stores were closed. As the owner of the B&B put it “the grocery store is the most happening place in town” this time of year. Tourism certainly plays a big role in this community. But I’ve been there in summer; it’s crazy. Going this time of year was quiet and relaxing. Bring a book, go to the lavender cafe (from the folks that own the Pelindaba Lavender farm), walk about the American or English camps, visit the lamas (1), camels (1) and alpacas (too many too count) and stop by Roche Harbor to realize just how much the island is changing.

We left with the 4 PM ferry on Sunday.